


A Ray of Hope

by TheColorBlue



Series: Those Who Use the Force [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 00:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5846218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheColorBlue/pseuds/TheColorBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They sat together looking out at the ocean, eating lunch and Rey said, “Kylo Ren said that he wanted to be my teacher. What a joke that was,” and kicked a small stone over the edge. Watching it until her eyes couldn’t see where it dropped into the water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Ray of Hope

They meditated in the morning and had breakfast and then Luke put Rey through some exercises blindfolded and flicking pebbles at her _with his mind_ and then afterwards they sat on the cliffside eating lunch. It was fish—there was a lot of fish around there—and some instant bread; a good, fine kind, not the coarse stuff that Rey had eaten everyday for her entire life back on Jakku. 

Luke had taught Rey how to swim.

At first it had felt unnatural-like, putting her head under water. Like a wish to drown. But then she got used to it. Maybe it was attuning herself to the force. The water in her own body. Maybe it wasn’t. Her mind drifting out and feeling fishes in the tide. 

They didn’t always have bread. 

Luke also had stores of grain that puffed up when you heated then in water. They started out tiny like fine sand and then puffed up into tiny brown pearls. 

They sat together looking out at the ocean, eating lunch and Rey said, “Kylo Ren said that he wanted to be my teacher. What a joke that was,” and kicked a small stone over the edge. Watching it until her eyes couldn’t see where it dropped into the water.

Luke just looked very tired and faraway, for a moment. Then he looked at Rey, kind of rueful, a seed of warmth coming through. 

“Leia sent Ben to me because she thought I could stop Snoke from influence Ben through the Force, but Snoke had been at Ben since he was an infant. On top of which, my family’s had anger management issues since my father’s time, his mother alway used to have the worst temper, and Ben has had that and a great deal more on his head to deal with. Anxiety. Attachment issues. Maybe a bit of a psychopath on top of that, but not the kind of symptoms he could have helped. The stuff that was a part of his brain. He shouldn’t have been separated from his mother. I thought that I could help him with meditation, but he needed a doctor, or a therapist. Or both. Someone trained to talk to him and help him. I’m just a water farmer from Tatooine, who tried to start a ramshackle Jedi school when I had never been classically trained myself. I was never equipped to handle my nephew by myself. He needed more than one person looking after him, keeping the danger of him in check. That’s what the Force is all about, you know. Understanding the networks in place needed to help everyone. Our interdependence, instead of sticking it out alone.” 

Rey frowned at her teacher. “You’re being way to nice about this,” she said. “What kind of monster kills his own _father_.” Killing the hero Han Solo! What kind of evil-minded person did that? She blinked hard, and then rubbed at her eyes. The moment of mourning passed. 

“Sometimes I wonder if the Dark Side has a tradition of patricide,” Luke said vaguely. “Ben is responsible for his own actions of course, but still. Sometimes I wonder.” Then he said, “Anyway, in comparison with you, this will be a breeze. You have such a natural affinity for the light, we’ll be done with your training and off this planet before you know it.” 

Rey just stuffed more bread in her mouth, feeling not particularly having any “affinity for the light.” Just sand still in her boots from after being on the beach for fishing. Bread and fish in her mouth. Chewing and swallowing. Drinking precious freshwater after. 

“Rylo Ken was a spoiled brat who didn’t know all his blessings even if they were thrown in his face,” she said. “If I had what he had—“

So many things. 

Family. 

Food. 

Water.

An education and wealth and opportunity. 

If she’d had what Kylo Ren had, all his life. 

“Don’t lose sight of the real enemy,” she heard Luke say. 

Then he was sighing. 

“I still am not cut out to be a teacher, I can see that pretty clearly.”

Rey looked over at Luke sharply. “No,” she protested, “You’ve taught me plenty.” She’d felt all tensed up, thinking of Kylo Ren, but now she closed her eyes for a moment. She remembered the Force. The movement of it through her. When she opened her eyes again, she said, “Fine. I don’t understand Kylo Ren. I still think he’s awful, but maybe I don’t understand him either. But I’ll still do what I have to stop him, and Supreme Leader Snoke, too. I’ll stop all of them.”

Luke just smiled, shaking his head a little. There was affection in the look. He seemed like the kind of man that wore his affection always close to his skin, and he reached out and clapped a hand to her shoulder. “Well, when I was your age I blew up a Death Star and had my hand cut off and brought my father, one of the most feared Dark Jedi of his time, back from the Dark Side. He blew up a whole planet. He had my aunt and uncle killed, personally tortured my sister and nearly killed me on more than one occasion! From the stories you’ve told me— you’ve barely got that kind of baggage going for you. The Force runs pure in you. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” 

“Ugh,” Rey said. “Hearing stories about your family is always terrible.”

Luke chuckled. “And hearing stories about your life has been, can I say it, like a ray of hope and sunlight—don’t look at me like that, I’m still your teacher,” Luke said, only laughing more when Rey honest-to-goodness stuck her tongue out at him. 

She’d told Luke about everything. BB-8 in the desert. Escaping Jakku with Finn. Befriending Han Solo and Chewbacca. All of them coming to her aide on the Starkiller Base. 

Luke added a little more kindling to the fire, and Rey sat there, chewing bread. 

It still made her tear up a little, thinking about all of that entire experience. 

Finn, now in recovery on D-Qar.

Finn fighting for her, protecting her from Kylo Ren. 

Her family: coming back for her at last.


End file.
